A debt twice owed
by sillym3
Summary: Sara and her debt to Grissom. "I owe him for something that happened twenty years ago. Now, I owe him twice as much.” A GSR fic betaed by Danielle Lynne.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer : I claim no ownership for the main characters within.

A:N : A huge thanks to Danielle Lynne for her amazing beta skill, suggestions, and title. If there's anything good in this fic, it hers, the rest is mine tough

Chapter 1

"Drop your gun!" Brass shouted, his voice blaring in Sara's ear. She felt the arm that had held her for the last two hours tighten around her neck, reducing her air supply.

"Please, let her go," pleaded Grissom. With his eyes locked on hers, the horror in his deep blue orbs elevated her fear.

"No!" screamed the voice from behind her. His warm breath brushed her neck, assaulting her senses with the foul smell of cigarettes and beer; smells that she hated the most. She wriggled around, trying to loosen his grip on her, struggling to get more air. "Stay still, you bitch, or I'll put a bullet in your head!"

"It's all over for you, Clay. The police have this place surrounded and you're not leaving here alive. So, why don't you just let her go and maybe we'll have mercy on you and chop off some jail time." Brass slowly took one step closer; his hands hoisted his gun steadily.

"Stay away!" The man screamed, sending more of the foul odors wafting towards her; contaminating her nostrils. The arm slung around her neck trembled and grew tighter, causing her to cough hard.

"Please, take me. I was the primary investigator on the case; she only assisted me," Grissom reasoned, his eyes averting from hers and staggering to the man behind her. "Let her go and take me. I'm solely responsible for your mother being put in jail."

Finally, the air that she needed so badly invaded her lungs as the man loosened his grip on her. Sara could see the slightest hint of relief in her lover's eyes.

Suddenly, the distinct sound of gunfire rang through the air; echoing throughout the room. Sara heard Brass let out some profanities and Grissom calling out her name.

Instinctively, Sara ducked down and elbowed her assailant. She reached out for Grissom. As their fingers touched, she noticed his eyes widening in fear. More guns sounded and profanities encircled her. In a brief moment, Grissom pinned her down the floor, shielding her body with his. Pain stabbed her in the back of her head; the result of being tackled to the floor. Grissom let out a strained grunt from his parted lips, clenching his eyes tightly shut.

"Griss?" Sara shifted underneath him, wriggled to move his body, but the man didn't budge.

Bringing her hand to his back, Sara gasped as her fingers met a wet, sticky substance on his shirt. She hesitantly brought her hand up towards her face to examine it. Discovering that her fingertips were stained crimson red, she screamed his name helplessly from the bottom of her lungs.

"Grissom!"

_Twenty years before_

Sara let the water run through her fingers as it washed the blood down the drain, staining the white porcelain with pink spots. She hated pink. She also hated Gerard Keys and, at that very moment, she could feel his piercing glare digging into her back. She didn't feel like turning around to look into his eyes, so she remained where she was, letting the water wash over her.

"Oh my god, Sarah!" cried Mrs. Keys, mispronouncing her name. The grey haired, middle-aged woman peeked over her shoulder, noticing her gaping wound. "Where did you get that from? Girl, we need to put some bandages on it. Water won't stop the bleeding, Sarah, you should now that!" The woman kept ranting as she rummaged through the first aid kit over the sink. Even though she never said her name correctly, Sara never had enough energy to protest.

"Here," said Mrs. Keys, setting out a box of bandages, alcohol and scissors on the edge of the sink, "Wrap it up and tell me why there's such a deep cut in your palm." The elder woman rested her hands on her hips, staring at Sara who stood completely still.

Sara blinked once, her mind drifting back to the chicken farm. She thought about the poor animals that were about to be slaughtered and how Gerard cornered her to one side of the fence. She slightly shuddered at the way his hands worked their way over her body and how she freed herself from his grasp, cutting herself in the process. She blinked once more before she opened her mouth to answer.

"This stupid girl cut herself trying to save those stupid chickens!" Gerard answered before Sara had a chance to. He worked his way toward the sink and started to help Sara wrap her wound. "Chickens are meant to be our food, Sara. You shouldn't have been trespassing the wire fence to set themfree." The boy grinned wickedly, putting more pressure than necessary on her palm. Sara winced in pain.

"Oh, Sarah," Mrs. Keys reached out to smooth her hair. "Act smarter, next time, girl," she nodded toward Gerard. "Take good care of her wound and make sure she doesn't go near the chicken farm again, Gerard. You're the oldest among theses kids," she spread her hands, gesturing to the other children in the room. "You should act as a big brother to them." Having finished her speech, Mrs. Keys walked out of the room, hauling a big basket full of clothes with her.

"See?" Gerard toying with the scissors in his hand, his eyes buried into hers. "I'm your big brother, Sara. You, just like all the other kids in this foster home, should obey me." He ran the blades of the scissors along her thigh and nuzzled into her neck, his breath tickling her skin. She could feel fear mingling with disgust as the presence of bile rose in her throat. She bolted out of the room could sense fear mingled with disgust rising in her throat, she quickly bolted from the room; away from fear, away from disgust, and mostly, away from Gerard.

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There was a good two quiet miles from her school to the foster home. Sara enjoyed walking alone on the roadside, reciting current lessons she learned from the class.

She was working to wrap her mind around Archimedes' Law when someone stopped her midway. She looked up to find a pair of black eyes staring deeply into her.

"Mother wants you to help me with the groceries," Gerard informed her, tightly gripping her arm with one hand, while his other hand waved a grocery list.

"Gerard, I can't. I have homework," she tried to explain firmly, but her tone of voice was laced with a sign of fear.

"Don't act smart on me, Long Legs." His black eyes wandered down to her legs, resurrecting a familiar sense of disgust rumbling in her stomach. "Help me with the groceries and maybe we'll visit the chicken farm afterwards." His hands now wandered down her legs and she fought hard the urge to vomit all over his shoes. "You can watch them die and cry, while I continue what I started yesterday." His words emerged between the sounds of his tongue passing over his lips. Sara shivered, letting a single teardrop fall down her cheek.

Pleading had worked previously she was in the same situation with her father, so she tried her luck again, hoping for a positive outcome. "Gerard, please. I have homework to do and today, I'm scheduled to do the laundry and baby sit."

Unfortunately, this only added fuel to the fire. Something in his evil black eyes sparkled, his fingers now tracing up and down her arms. Sara was three years younger, but she was as tall as he was. She could make out the freckles on his face and the hair that rarely grew on top of his upper lip that he kept insisting on licking. She gulped, feeling the bitter taste of vomit in her mouth.

"Come on, we don't have all day!" Gerard tugged on her arm.

"No," she pleaded, standing still. Her voice was barely a whisper.

"Long Legs, Long Legs," Gerard shook his head. He tugged harder on her hand, sending a wave of pain through her bandaged palm. "Don't you ever say 'No' to me, or I'll make mother kick your ass out of the foster home! She trusts me, remember?" His last words were whispered manipulatively into her ear. "You don't want to live on the streets, do you? After what happened to your parents?"

She curled her fingers into a tight fist, her eyes to the ground. There were images flashing into her mind. Her mother; holding a knife in hand. Her father; clutching his bleeding bloody. Herself; sitting in the corner, crying silently. Before she knew what was happening, her fist slammed into Gerard's nose. She punched him aimlessly, and was rewarded by a dictionary full of profanities from him. He tried to fight back, which only earned more punches from her. When she finally freed herself from Gerard hands, Sara run away as fast as she could.

Sara didn't know how long she'd been running, but she knew it had been quite a while when she felt the awful cramp in her abdomen. Her shoes were coated by dust and it felt like she'd exhaled fire from her lungs. She stopped to catch her breath, resting her hands on her knees. Exhausted, she started to scan the environment around her, looking for a place to rest. There were only trees, grass and dirt. She ran some more, until she came upon a wrecked wooden house with yellow caution tape all around it. She managed to drag her feet to the porch when suddenly the world around her turned black. The last sound she heard was a voice exclaiming in triumph, "Gotcha, Long Legs."

TBC

R&R please, and thanks for reading


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER : Refer to the first chapter please

A:N : Thank you so much for the amazing reviews for the first chapter. I hope this chapter is as interesting as the previous.

Cookies and Ice creams for the super awesome Danielle Lynne, without her help this story would be unreadable. If there's silly mistake in this chapter, it belongs to my stubbornness.

Chapter Two

It felt as if someone had banged her head into a wall. Everything she saw was blurry and wobbled. Shaking her head to clear her vision, Sara felt stinging pain in her arms and thighs. She raised one hand to support her, but felt it restrained by something. She shook her head again and gasped when everything became clear. She was strapped down, both of her hands bound to a derelict bedpost. There was dust everywhere and the mattress underneath her was damp and dirty.

She cried. She didn't really know what had happened, but she cried anyway. Sara could hear her own sobs reverberating through the empty room. When the sun outside the window started to make its way down the horizon, she slowly came to terms with what she believed happened. It must have been Gerard who had tied her up and she had to find a way to free herself before he came back.

She shifted, trying her best to sit up. Rolling onto her stomach, she managed to get up. A belt was tightening her hands to the bedpost. She yanked and tugged on it until the belt budged a little. She got down from the bed and yanked harder on it, but stopped dead in her tracks when Gerard came in through the door.

"Damn it, Long Legs!" He ran to her side immediately. Grabbing her by her hair, he screamed in her face. "Look what you've done to me!" His nose was swollen and bruised, his face covered in scratches. "Don't ever think you can get away without paying for this!"

She screamed when Gerard pushed her back onto the bed. Landed on her stomach, she rolled back, trying to kick her way out. However, Gerard was stronger than she was. He had her pinned down in one swift move and started to kiss her neck, hungrily.

Struggling in fear, Sara attempted to use her leg to kick Gerard. To her horror, it only made him angrier. He slapped her. Not satisfied with the first one, he slapped again, this time blurring her vision. He bit into her neck and tears fell down her cheeks in streams. Sara knew that she should've struggled more, but pain and fear overwhelmed her mind. She shut her eyes and willed for what was happening to be a dream, a nightmare, to be forgotten when she open her eyes again.

There was sound of a zipper being undone, Gerard's heavy breath and her loud sobs. She bit her lips, waiting for the inevitable. Then, to her relief, she heard footsteps, followed by mumbled conversation from the distance.

"Help!" She screamed her lungs out, earning herself a harsh punch from Gerard. "Shut up, Long Legs!"

Distracted by the unsuspected visitors in the old house, Gerard loosened his grip on Sara. He looked up to the door wearily, giving Sara an opportunity to get loose again. She kicked her foot up and hit Gerard in just the right place. The young man screamed and Sara managed to get out from the bed, but her bounded hands kept her from getting very far away.

"Help!" she screamed again, tugging her hands away from the binds.

"Shit!" Gerard got up from the bed and lunged for her. The conversation outside the room was getting louder and the footsteps were getting closer. His eyes widened at the horror of being caught.

Sensing his fear, Sara felt a burst of bravery enter her chest. She tugged as hard as she could and this time, luck was on her side. The bedpost cracked and broke, freeing the belt. She used her newly freed hands to swing a punch toward him. Gerard dodged her arm while he gave a hard blow to her stomach.

"Ugh!" Sara grunted, landing on her knees. Gerard threw another punch to her face.

"Hey, stop!" Someone shouted behind her, followed by a rush of footsteps.

Her watery eyes saw Gerard run and jump out of a window. A sting of nausea hit her and she weakly fell to the dusty floor, passing out cold.

"Are you okay?" She heard a soft voice of a man, along with a warm touch to her forehead. She flinched, afraid of the unfamiliar voice. She tried to open her eyes only to felt them stinging with pain. She shook her head and tried to open her eyes again, but all she could see were blurry images.

"It's okay," the steady, soothing voice said comfortingly. "The boy gave you quite a beating. Your eyes are swollen."

The man touched her arms and she flinched again; her body trembled.

"I'm here to help. Do you think you can get up on your feet? We need to go to the hospital." His voice was laced with sincerity and, after a moment, Sara started to feel she could trust this unknown stranger. She tried to stand, but fell promptly back to the floor.

"Here, let me help you." The man wrapped his arms around her midsection, propping her up.

"Man. Either that boy runs fast or I'm getting too old!" Another unfamiliar male voice hit Sara's ear along with rapid, heavy breathing. She turned to see, but the only image she got was a blurry vision of a man, bent over with his hands on his knees.

"Do you know who attacked you?" He asked, walking towards Sara.

"Later, Jake, this girl needs medical attention," the man who propped her up answered.

"Right, I can take her to the hospital," offered Jake, who positioned himself beside Sara, holding onto her arms. "You can start piecing together a timeline; the crime scene is in the other room."

"That's alright, I can do it later. I want to make sure this young woman gets every help she needs."

"Geez, Bugman! The D.A. needs the precise timeline immediately. You're the only one I know who can deal with those frickin' bugs. Go to the next room, find the bugs on the wall, work your magic, and I'll handle this damsel in distress." Sara didn't like the way Jake was touching her and their conversations were making her headache worse, but she didn't have any choice.

"But…"

"I'm the detective here, Bugman. She'll get all the necessary help she needs. Besides, your flight to Vegas takes off in two hours."

"Yeah" The man referred to as "Bugman" loosened his arms around Sara. "You'll be okay, Miss." He patted Sara's back, rubbed her hand and walked away.

"Girl, you're lucky! If my friend there didn't hear you, that asshole would've laid his hands further on you," Jake murmured in her ear, while leading her out of the room. He continued to interrogate her some more about certain things; her name, her parents, and which body parts of her that hurt the most. When she didn't answer, he kept on talking; about his job as a detective, about "Bugman" and about the old house that happened to be a crime scene of a double homicide. She didn't understand most of his words and was too tired to try to comprehend it, so she lulled herself out of her pain and shut her already swollen eyes. By the time they reached the car, she had passed out again.

She managed to see Jake's face the week after. He helped her out of Mrs. Keys' foster home and sent her to a better one. He also made sure that Gerard Keys ended up in jail and like Mrs. Keys, he also mispronounced her name. However, Sara never met her first savior. The "Bugman" was away in Vegas and sent her his best regard through Jake.

It was only after a few years, at the Annual Forensic Academy Conference that Sara Sidle laid her eyes on the Bugman's face for the first time.

"Hello everyone. I'm Gil Grissom and I'm an entomologist, or...uh... a bugs expert. My colleagues usually address me as Bugman." The man peered over his glasses, observing his audience in the room. When his eyes fell on hers, for the first time in years, she lit up her broad smile.

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He was lying peacefully on his side, succumbed into a drug-induced sleep. An IV needle hooked into the top of one of his hands. His graying curls were dampened by sweat. His chest rose and fell slowly beneath the bandages. The sight would've brought sadness to anyone who witnessed it, but to Sara, it was pure bliss. After hours spent outside the O.R. in the waiting room, she was finally allowed to see her boyfriend; the man who had, once again, saved her life.

She took a seat in front of him, running her fingers through his curls, placing a soft kiss on his temple. "Thank you", she whispered slowly, a single tear drop running down her cheek. "Thank you so much," she whispered again, this time to whatever higher power existed that kept Grissom alive after taking a bullet that was intended for her.

"How is he?" She felt Brass put his hand on her shoulder.

"He'll be fine. They were able to remove the bullet."

"Good. The officer who triggered the chaos said he accidentally shot Clay Davis, due to his nervousness. Today was his first day in the field; he wasn't ready for a hostage situation," Brass explained, but Sara didn't really care. All she needed, and wanted, to know was that Grissom would be fine.

"We'll have Clay arrested after the doctor releases him. He's got two gunshot wounds to his feet and one in his shoulder; courtesy of me." Brass kept with his tirade and all that Sara could think about was the bullet that was nestled in Grissom's back a couple of hours ago. "I don't know what was going on in that mongrel's mind, but holding a C.S.I. as a hostage, in a crime scene full of officers, is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of," he mumbled, stepping closer to the hospital bed.

"You owe this superhero one, I guess," Brass said, stepping up, putting his hand on Grissom's shoulder, examining the wound on his back.

"I owe him twice," Sara whispered.

"Huh?" Brass asked, looking over to her.

"I owe him for something that happened twenty years ago. Now, I owe him twice as much." She placed a gentle kiss on Grissom's cheek and whispered in his ear, "Wake up soon, Bugman. I have to start repaying my debt to you."

FIN

Thank you so much for reading and please leave me your review. Let me know what you think, good or bad, I'll treasure it.


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